Chasten “Chat” Bowen, 87, of Anaheim was a radio operator on a B-17 bomber in World War II. Bowen is one of seven airman featured in a new documentary called “Lost Airmen of Buchenwald.”

“I think the biggest thing for me was to go to Buchenwald and to stand on the rock pile they slept on,” says filmmaker Mike Dorsey, whose grandfather E.C. “Easy” Freeman, was among the 168 Allied airmen imprisoned at Buchenwald during World War II. “It's still there. And you know these rocks you're standing on were the rocks that your grampa slept on. It was powerful. The barracks are all gone, torn down. But the rocks are still there.”

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After the U.S. bombed Buchenwald's munitions factory, the German air force, of Luftwaffe, came to inspect the damage. The Allied airmen took this opportunity to plead their case – airmen to airmen – that they be sent to a prisoner of war camp. The Luftwaffe agreed. So on Oct., 19, 1944, just four days before their planned execution, the allied airmen were shipped from Buchenwald to the Stalag Luft III POW camp. Some members, as shown here, were forced to march part of the route in the snow.

Chasten “Chat” Bowen, now 87, was beaten, marched before a firing squad and starved to near death in Buchenwald, but says this of his experience: "I can't bring myself to hate. I saw what hate can do."

Chasten “Chat” Bowen points to his left leg where he lost all the skin from a wound. Bowen is one of seven airman featured in a new documentary called “Lost Airmen of Buchenwald.”

When the Gestapo arrested Chasten Bowen in Paris, it originally listed his nationality, in the upper-left corner, as “A,” for American. This was later crossed-out and the word for “police prisoner” was written above it. This apparently was done for all of the Buchenwald airmen – signifying the Nazis' rejection of their POW rights under the Geneva Accords.

P-38 pilot Joe Moser is another of the 168 Allied airmen sent to Buchenwald. A new documentary, “Lost Airmen of Buchenwald” details their race against time to escape execution at the slave labor camp where some 56,000 prisoners died.

Joe Moser, one of the "Lost Airmen of Buchenwald," stands with filmmaker Mike Dorsey in the field he parachuted into before he was captured by the Germans and sent to Buchenwald. "I think it made me a better man," Moser says about his captivity. "We're a free nation. We can do just about whatever we want. And to have all that taken away and then given back to you is just such a happy occasion."

This POW file card of B-17 radio operator Chasten "Chat" Bowen was made immediately after he arrived at Stalag Luft III. During World War II, Germany secretly sent 168 Allied airmen to Buchenwald, charged as "saboteurs and terrorists." When the German Air Force found out, it arranged to transfer the airmen to Stalag Luft III, a POW camp. The men were moved just four days before their scheduled execution.

After Buchenwald, what was Stalag Luft III like? “The Biltmore!” says Chasten “Chat” Bowen, now 87, of Anaheim. “There was a barracks. There was heat. You got food. I got a Red Cross parcel with GI shoes, pants, shirt and an Eisenhower jacket.” As the war neared its end, however, and Allied forces drew near, the Germans moved the men again in February, 1945, before they eventually were liberated.

P-38 fighter pilot Joe Moser escaped a death sentence at Buchenwald by four days. Yet after the war, the U.S. denied it and told the imprisoned airmen to keep quiet. When Moser told a Lion's Club about his experiences, they didn't believe him. “If they aren't going to believe what I say, I won't say anything,” he told himself. “So that's what happened for almost 40 years.” Now his story is told in the documentary ‘Lost Airmen of Buchenwald.”

Chasten Bowen, now 87, of Anaheim, was given a women's silk blouse, women's slacks and no shoes while at Buchenwald concentration camp. He and the 168 Allied airmen there were forced to live outside, like pigs or cattle. One died of pneumonia. Bowen's weight dropped from 165 to 89 pounds. “Every day now is a good day,” he says. “I live by that philosophy.” Bowen is one of seven airman featured in a new documentary called "Lost Airmen of Buchenwald."

The 168 Allied airmen at Buchenwald selected New Zealand pilot Phil Lamason as their commanding officer. He was a worthy pick. Lamason maintained the group as a military unit. They marched – even to the latrines. And Lamason refused to let any of them work in the Buchenwald munitions factory. For his defiance, he was marched in front of a firing squad – twice. “If I took a step backward, they probably would've shot me,” he said. But his answer remained the same: “No, we're not going to work.” And they never did.

The new documentary "Lost Airmen of Buchenwald" tells the secret story of 168 Allied airmen who were sentenced to die at Buchenwald concentration camp during World War II. They defied the Nazis, survived with no shoes and almost no food, and eventually found a way out four days before their planned execution. The documentary is now playing at film festivals around the country.

Chasten Bowen was a radio operator and top gunner aboard a B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber, stationed in Bassingborne, England, during World War II. "They took a good beating," Bowen says of plane known for getting her crews home even after taking anti-aircraft fire. During a bombing run over German-occupied France in June, 1944, however, Bowen's B-17 took a direct hit, causing her to crash.

Chat Bowen's fourth – and final – mission of World War II began well. His squadron of 18 “Flying Fortress” bombers roared out of Bassingborne, England, at 4:30 a.m. bound for a camouflaged German fighter base in Dreaux, France. Trouble was, the camouflage worked. The bombers flew past it. About 7:30 a.m., they were ordered to circle around and try again. “That's a dangerous thing,” says Bowen. “They've got info on you. They know your altitude. They're firing at you.”

Bowen's B-17 was in trouble as soon as it swung around for a second try at the German fighter base in Dreaux, France. “Three hundred yards off our tail – flak,” the tail-gunner yelled. Below, German 88s were firing explosive shells, known as flak, at the bombers. The next shell ripped through the waist of the plane, between Bowen and two waist gunners. Luckily, it didn't explode and no one was hurt. The next shell would not be so kind.

“I always thought, if we got hit, I'd ride the airplane down and crash because I didn't want to jump out,” Bowen says. But he quickly changed his mind after an anti-aircraft shell took the left wing of his B-17 bomber in June, 1944. As the plane dropped from 30,000 feet to 27,000, Bowen pulled a gunner out of the ball turret, handed him a parachute and then followed him out the door. Bowen's life was about to take a turn for the worse.

The reason the Germans sent 168 Allied airmen to Buchenwald is that they considered them “saboteurs and terrorists,” not traditional prisoners of war. Why? Because the airmen were found hiding with the French Underground, in civilian clothes and without dog tags. This page from Chasten Bowen's Buchenwald file shows Bowen labeled as “polizeihäftling,” meaning “police prisoner,” and not POW. The document also shows that Bowen arrived at Buchenwald on Aug. 20, 1944, and left on Oct. 19, 1944.

When B-17 radioman Chasten Bowen arrived at Buchenwald, guards pointed to this chimney and told him it was the only he'd ever get out. A new documentary "Lost airmen of Buchenwald," tells how Bowen and most of the 168 Allied airmen imprisoned at Buchenwald narrowly escaped their death sentence - then were ordered by their own government to never talk about it.

Malnutrition was the greatest killer at the Buchenwald labor camp. Prisoners were given one cup of grass soup a day and bread made with sawdust as filler -- and expected to work every day. When prisoners became too frail or sick to work in the nearby munitions factory, they were left to die or killed, then cremated.

Chasten Bowen was one of 168 Allied airmen shot down over German-occupied France and secretly sent to Buchenwald under the false pretenses of being "terrorists and saboteurs." The Nazi concentration camp housed more than 238,00 prisoners throughout World War II – including Jews, Russians, Poles, political prisoners, criminals and homosexuals. The lucky were forced to work in nearby munitions factories, where many died of malnutrition or disease. Others were shot, hanged, strangled or killed in medical experiments. The airman faced a certain death until a strange twist of fate occurred in October, 1944.

Inscribed in the main gate at Buchenwald were the words: “Jedem das Seine,” which literally mean: “To each his own.” The figurative translation, however, is more telling: “Everyone gets what he deserves.”

Nazi guards at Buchenwald concentration camp, near Wiemar, Germany, liked to tell prisoners that the only way they'd ever leave was through the crematorium chimney. “In through the gate,” they'd say, “and out through the chimney.” An estimated 56,000 people died at Buchenwald.

Filmmaker Mike Dorsey, of Temecula, first heard about the U.S. airmen imprisoned at Buchenwald from his grandfather, E.C. “Easy” Freeman, who used to talk about it occasionally to the family. Two years ago, Dorsey asked his grandfather to talk about his experiences on camera. That was the start of a 2-year project, finding and interviewing seven airmen for his newly released documentary, “Lost Airmen of Buchenwald.” Another airmen fetured in the film is Chasten "Chat" Bowen, 87, of Anaheim.

ANAHEIM – He was beaten. Marched before a firing squad. Starved at Buchenwald.

Only a small twist of fate saved him – four days before the Nazis planned to execute him.

But Chasten “Chat” Bowen was ordered to shut up about it.

“I had a V.A. psychiatrist tell me I was lying,” says Bowen, 87, of Anaheim. “People said it was a bunch of bull, so we just clammed up.”

Not anymore.

Six decades after 168 Allied airmen were sentenced to die in a Nazi concentration camp, their story is revealed in a new documentary called “Lost Airmen of Buchenwald.”

“Imagine how mad you’d be to go through this and then nobody believed you, even your own government,” says filmmaker Michael Dorsey, who interviewed seven survivors for the film.

Equally amazing are the life lessons men like Bowen learned in a slave labor camp where 56,000 people died in unthinkable ways.

Bowen’s story starts in a B-17 bomber over German-occupied France in June, 1944. With one wing missing and the plane on fire, Bowen jumps into a field below.

A small French boy runs up, pointing to Germans in the distance.

BAD TO WORSE

For three days, he hides in the woods.

Then he finds a pig shed that leads to a farmer that leads to the French Underground. One home to another. One village to the next. A horse-cart to a Citroen black sedan to a flat-bed truck with a dozen airmen under canvas, all told: A plane will take you to England.

Bump-bump, beep-beep through Parisian streets. Who knew the driver was making 10,000 francs a head from the Gestapo?

When the canvas lifts, the airmen are at Fresnes Prison, where guards laugh at Bowen for wanting to put his name on the wristwatch they’ve confiscated.

No need, they say. We’ll bury you in two days.

Bowen is pushed into one of 1,200 stone cells. Alone. One cup of soup each day. Gunshots and screaming each night.

Like the other captured airmen, he refuses to give more than his name, rank or serial number. One day he is walked to a courtyard with bullet-pocked walls and a firing squad.

An officer shouts. Weapons raise. Bowen says nothing.

“I can’t explain it,” he recalls, “but a calm came over me. I knew where I was going, and I knew where they were going. From that day on, I never get riled.”

He is marched back. On the 38th night, with American troops nearing Paris, the prisoners are pushed into cattle cars – 90 men per boxcar built to hold 8 cattle. No sitting for five days. And no toilet. Just a bucket sloshing with each mile deeper into Germany.

“They gave me a women’s silk blouse and women’s slacks,” Bowen says. “I had no shoes. No socks.”

The 168 Allied airmen also have no shelter. No shade. They live on a small pile of rocks, like pigs or cattle, huddling at night.

We are prisoners of war, they tell the guards. We should be in a POW camp.

You are saboteurs caught behind enemy lines, the Nazis say. You will die.

By war’s end, more than 238,000 prisoners – including Jews, Russians, Poles, political prisoners, criminals and homosexuals – would pass through Buchenwald’s front gate with its sign, in German: Everyone gets what he deserves.

The lucky are forced to work in nearby munitions factories until they die of malnutrition or disease. Others are shot. Hanged. Strangled. Or die in medical experiments.

The camp’s daily rations: one bowl of grass soup and one piece of bread made with sawdust. The daily ritual: appell – an hours-long head count where the weakest drop from fatigue.

“The Germans would knock their brains out with a rifle butt and stack them up at the crematoria,” Bowen says. “That was a common occurrence every day.”

The airmen gain strength from each other. They form a military unit. Select a commanding officer. They march – even to the latrines. And steadfastly refuse to work in any munitions factory.

But this is no place to win arguments. Within months Bowen weighs 89 pounds. Another airman dies of pneumonia. And finally their execution date is set.

No one inside these gates can save them now.

LOST AIRMEN RETURN

They say help comes from above.

In this case, it rains down from 30,000 feet as 200 American B-17s bomb Buchenwald’s armament factories and SS barracks.

When members of the German Air Force – or Luftwaffe – arrive to inspect the damage, Americans push a shy, German-speaking waist-gunner out to plead their case. Flier-to-flier. Airman-to-airman.

Soon an inquiry is launched. And then, four days before their planned execution, the airmen are put on trains to POW camps.

They have survived Buchenwald. But the world isn’t ready to hear it. After the war, they are told to not speak about it. The official U.S. stance was that no American POWs went to Buchenwald.

“We were still negotiating certain things with the Germans,” says Dorsey, of Temecula. “The government didn’t want to upset people by saying U.S. servicemen were held in concentration camps.”

So the story went untold – except around dinner tables. That’s how Dorsey heard about it as a child, from his grandfather, E.C. “Easy” Freeman, who was one of the 168 airmen. Two years ago, Dorsey asked Freeman to tell his story on camera.

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